Court frees 6 persons, pulls up Rohtak police

Six members of a family, charged with murder, rioting and trespass, have been acquitted by a Delhi court on the grounds that the investigation by the police in Rohtak was “faulty and highly motivated”.

The court said certain glaring facts have emerged in the property dispute, which impelled it to conclude that the investigation was “not only faulty but highly motivated” and the accused persons, who were alleged to be the trespassers on the property, were the ones who were already possessing it.

Additional District Judge Kamini Lau said the criminal background of the victim, who died in the incident, and an injured person and the history of enmity and litigation between the parties was “deliberately withheld” from the court by the investigating agency and it would be “highly unsafe” to convict the accused.

The prosecution had alleged that the six accused armed with gun, iron pipes and sticks had trespassed the house in Rohtak, which was in the possession of victim Naurang Pal and assaulted him and Bhupender to teach them a lesson in May 2012. While Pal succumbed to injuries, Bhupender was injured.

The court said it cannot be ruled out that Pal and Bhupender had come to the disputed property attempting to take forcible possession which was resisted to by the accused.

The court also said it was neither believable nor probable that the accused, including ex-serviceman, government servant, senior citizens and two women, would come to take revenge from Pal who was a criminal with 14 cases against him.

“Possession of the premises has been established to be of the accused and possession of deceased Naurang Pal or of Kuldeep (eye witness) does not stand established.

“The possibility of false involvement/implications of one or all of them cannot be ruled out keeping in view of the fact that the state of affairs is such that it is not possible to determine who is the actual assailant, the acquittal of all the accused is a compulsion of the court or else there can be the possibility of conviction of an innocent,” the judge said.

The court acquitted Delhi residents Ram Kumar and Kuldeep and Dharampal, Luxmi Devi, Ravinder and Savita, who were living in Haryana’s Rohtak area, of charges of murder, rioting armed with deadly weapons, attempt to murder and house trespass of the IPC and under the provisions of Arms Act.

The court pulled up the cops saying the manner in which the probe was conducted has raised “serious question on the fairness of the investigating agency” and several material facts were withheld from it which “cannot be unintentional”.

“This is a simple and plain attempt to divert and twist the investigation in a particular direction and I have no hesitation in holding that the investigation on the face of it was biased and motivated,” it said. The court was hearing a case which was transferred from Rohtak to Delhi following a Supreme Court order.